Chapter Text
Cass lived their whole life in a port city with their father, who served in the guard. It was their dream for many years to join the guard there as well, and they trained thoroughly through their adolescence under their father's guidance - but they were denied, through no fault of their own, and in spite of the efforts their father made on their behalf.
Frustrated by the unjust rejection, Cass decided to travel overseas, seeking new places and people and, perhaps, a place to call home. So, to start their adventuring, they negotiated a spot on a trading ship where in exchange for their lodgings they did work as a swabbie and cook's assistant. Quiet but unwittingly charismatic, the crew took an immediate fondness to them, and Cass was mentored to learn about sailing and navigating.
Only a couple weeks into their journey, the trading ship was beset by a horrific storm in the night. The winds tore at the sails, causing the masts to crack and fall. They struck the ship on the way down and damaged the hull, letting seawater pour in. While out on the deck desperately trying to help secure the sails, a beam struck Cass as it fell and a gash was torn in their side. As the ship sank, they grabbed desperately at debris, and could hardly hear or see anything over the sheets of rain and enormous waves. So they clung to the floating remains, spending the rest of the storm trying to keep their head above the water, until the wound at their side and exhaustion from the ordeal led them to lose consciousness.
Part 1: On the Sea
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[Cass]
When Cass wakes, the sun is bright in the sky. They try to sit up, and they feel a sharp sting of pain at their side and weariness through their entire body. Their head pounds.
But they're alive. And more than that, they're on a raft: a collection of debris from the ship, all lashed together with rope - and with what looks like braided seaweed.
The events of the night before strike them in an instant, and they're almost overcome with grief knowing how the ship went down and their crewmates almost certainly perished. But Cass's father taught them the importance of maintaining a level head in survival situations, so they look around to take stock of what they have.
The raft is flat, without any kind of shelter, and surprisingly large: they could lay in any orientation on it with a couple feet to spare before the edges. They recognize that it must have been pulled together by another member of the crew, but they don't see anyone else. Cass is alarmed by this - how would their crewmate have disappeared? Did Cass themself somehow pull the raft together, and they just forgot because of some kind of head trauma?
The next thing Cass notes is that they're topless, and their shirt had been shredded to create a large bandage wrapped around their torso, holding slimy seaweed against their injured side. Since Cass had begun their transition a long while ago, feeling the air on their exposed chest doesn't disturb them as it would have in the past, and for barely a moment they reflect on how much more distressing this discovery would have been years ago.
They notice next that they still have their dagger sheathed and strapped to their hip - although they lost their shoes during the storm when they kicked them off, since the soaked boots were weighing them down in the water.
And the final thing Cass observes on the raft is more woven seaweed propped up with pieces of wood into a shallow and round basket shape. In the basket sit three dead fish, with what look like a human-sized and -shaped bite mark in each of them.
Cass sits back. This is all extremely bizarre. Looking around the ocean, they wonder if their crewmate might have gone out swimming to collect more debris or supplies floating on the surface after the ship went down - but they see only open ocean. Uncertain of what to think, Cass becomes increasingly convinced that whoever had saved them and made this raft must have somehow drowned before Cass woke.
This is extremely alarming to them. They're about to throw their survival training out the window to panic, but they catch sight of something appearing in the water from the corner of their eye.
It's a young woman, her head peeking out from the sea next to the raft to stare at Cass. Her hair is blonde - so blonde that even when wet it shines like gold - and trails into the water to drift around her in whisps. She has freckles across the bridge of her nose and on her cheeks under her big green eyes. And she's beautiful.
Cass is certain they're hallucinating. They don't recognize the girl, and there's no way that someone new could have appeared in the middle of the ocean. Staring at Cass with her big green eyes, the girl reaches a hand out of the water to place a living crab on the raft without breaking eye contact. And then her other hand darts out of the water to smash the crab with a rock.
She picks up the newly-dead crab and holds it out to Cass, who is convinced they're going insane.
[Rapunzel]
Much to Rapunzel's disappointment, the human doesn't take the delicious crab.
The human, instead, starts making human sounds at her.
Disregarding the incomprehensible human sounds, Rapunzel puts her hands on the edge of the raft to pull herself up farther and look in the basket - and she sees that the human also has not been eating the delicious fish.
Frowning, Rapunzel places the crab in the basket with the fish, and turns to dart back under the water. She swims deep into the sea, seeking another food option.
In a short while, Rapunzel returns to the raft with a delicious squid. Surely the human will enjoy squid. Who doesn't like squid?
The human does not take the squid. Instead, they move closer to the raft's edge to look at her through the water. And the human starts making more human sounds that Rapunzel can't understand.
Rapunzel squints in thought. Maybe this is a young human? That needs their food chewed? They don't look young if humans are anything like merfolk, but Rapunzel can't think of any other reason the human wouldn't eat. So Rapunzel bites off a piece of squid to chew, and she spits it onto the raft.
[Cass]
Oh Jesus fucking Christ why is the mermaid(!!) spitting chewed squid onto the raft?!
The mermaid looks expectantly between them and the chewed squid, and Cass realizes that she wants Cass to eat. Cass, however, is not eating chewed squid.
So instead they reach for the crab in the basket, and unsheath their dagger to pry it open and eat some of the crab meat raw.
The mermaid smiles hugely at them, and oh my fucking god why are her teeth all sharp like a shark.
The mermaid grabs and wolfs down the rest of the squid with terrifying speed. Feeling bizarrely awkward and like they should say something, Cass offers, "I know that this is a dream or I'm completely delirious, but thank you for the raft, and food, and wrapping my injury."
The mermaid doesn't appear to register their words, and Cass looks again at her through the water: she's human (-ish, considering her teeth) waist-up, and has a long slender tail that looks gray like a dolphin. Her long hair probably reaches halfway down her back, but in the water it drifts around her. She has a bag-looking-thing that might be made of woven kelp at her hip with a shoulder strap. And she's naked.
The mermaid smiles again before quickly and briefly swimming around under the raft, and then she disappears again into the depths. She returns in a short while with a bunch more crabs, and she bashes them all with her rock - kept in her bag, apparently - before placing them in the basket for Cass. For the first time Cass notices that her hands are slightly webbed, and she has what looks like small talons at the ends of her fingers rather than nails.
The mermaid then reaches into her bag again to pull out a fucking spyglass, and she holds it out to Cass with a smile.
Cass feels themself go cold. They recognize it - it belonged to the trading ship's navigator. Taking it from the mermaid, Cass is overwhelmed with grief again - even if they had hardly known the man, the unfairness of his death and the deaths of, presumably, the rest of the crew, make tears gather at the corners of their eyes.
Cass asks the mermaid where she'd found the spyglass, and unsurprisingly she doesn't answer.
But this gives Cass an idea. Surely the spyglass must have sank, and it was among the rest of the ship's ruins at the bottom of the sea when the mermaid found it. Perhaps Cass could ask her to recover other things from the shipwreck.
So they take their dagger and a stray piece of wood, and they make a crude drawing of a glass bottle, thinking that the mermaid could bring them something to drink. Because while the mermaid had provided them with food, they have no source of water.
But knowing that the mermaid doesn't understand them, Cass recognizes they're going to have to do some charades.
[Rapunzel]
The human points at Rapunzel and says, "you," and then they hold up one of the crabs and add, "bring crab." They point at the wood carving and ask, "you bring bottle?"
Rapunzel recognizes that the human is trying to teach her their language. She stares at the human, considering this for a moment, and she points at the crab repeating, "bring crab."
The human looks astonished at her words. They say, "crab" while holding up the crab, and "bring" while making a gesture of carrying and then placing the crab on the raft.
Rapunzel gets it now. She points at the crab again and repeats, "crab," and then points at the wood carving and says, "bottle?"
The human smiles hugely and nods.
Rapunzel pensively repeats, "bring bottle," and she disappears under the water to return to the shipwreck.
And she returns to the raft with "bottle": several planks of wood like the one the human had pointed at. The human doesn't look as happy as they did before, but they take the planks.
The human carves something else into the plank of wood, and then points at it and says, "crab."
Rapunzel squints at them because what the hell. The plank of wood is "bottle," not "crab." They just went through this.
The human holds up a real crab and repeats "crab," then points at the carving and says "crab."
Rapunzel puts her hands on the raft and effortlessly pulls her torso from the water, making the raft sway and the human alarmed, to lean in and look closer at the carving.
Rapunzel responds, "Oh! Crab!"
Because the human cannot draw at all and it took Rapunzel this long to realize the carving resembles a crab. But it's okay, she's got it now. So she repeats, "bring bottle," and she disappears under the water.
And she returns with some actual bottles. The human is overjoyed, and Rapunzel delights in seeing them so excited. They have a very cute face and smile.
Curious, Rapunzel grabs a fish out of the basket and holds it up, pointing at it and looking questioningly at the human.
The human says, "fish," and Rapunzel repeats "fish."
And they play this game for everything around them - the sea, the sky, the sun, clouds, wood planks, rope, spyglass, squid, dagger, seaweed, rock - and eventually the human points at themself and says "Cass."
Rapunzel has a full language among other merfolk, but they're not sounds she'd ever make out of water. She tries pointing to herself to speak her name, and it comes out as "Rapunzel." Cass repeats her name, and Rapunzel decides that she likes it quite a lot out of the water - at least when it's Cass saying it.
[Cass]
Cass knows that they have to try to get home. Their water supply is limited, and they'd rather not remain stranded on the ocean where they've already almost died - even if they do have a very kind and beautiful mermaid dedicated to helping them.
So they decide to make some improvements to their raft. They ask Rapunzel if she could retrieve more rope and wood from the shipwreck, and they use carvings to ask for other materials like oars and sailcloth. It doesn't always work because Cass is not a good artist, but Rapunzel is both patient and clever, so Cass quickly receives the materials they need to start working.
They manage to make a little lean-to for shelter and shade, and a passable rudder and sail. While they work, Rapunzel leaves sometimes, but never for long. She always tells Cass "I come back" before leaving, and she often returns with some gift or another, like more wood or crabs. As evening falls she takes the fish from the basket on the raft and wolfs them down, presumably realizing that Cass isn't going to eat them - but that's alright, because she's already replaced the fish with more crabs than Cass thinks they'll even be able to eat.
The first night, Cass is surprised to see Rapunzel choosing to stay near the raft. As the sky darkens, Cass lays down on their back. They point up at the sky and say, "stars."
Rapunzel cranes her neck to look up, and after a few moments she disappears under the water - only to come leaping out of it almost immediately, landing on the raft and causing it to shake tremendously on the calm night sea.
Cass is severely alarmed but the raft steadies quickly, and Rapunzel lays down next to them to look up at the stars too.
Relaxing again, Cass starts pointing at different stars, counting the bright ones in a constellation and then saying the constellation name. Rapunzel laughs at some of the names, and says words Cass doesn't understand, pointing at the same clusters of stars. After a moment Cass realizes Rapunzel's telling them what she calls the star clusters.
After a while, Rapunzel finally returns to the sea, and she says "I come back morning" before disappearing underwater.
~
The next morning Cass takes off the bandage on their side to clean their wound, and under the seaweed stuck to it they're shocked to find it in vastly better condition than they would have expected. It's healing incredibly quickly.
Rapunzel pulls her torso out of the water again to lean forward and lounge on the raft, and she looks closely at Cass's injury. Feeling slightly self-conscious but knowing that Rapunzel had seen their injury before anyway, Cass lets her investigate - and Rapunzel pulls more seaweed out of her bag and licks it before pressing it against the wound.
Cass recoils from the sudden sliminess against their skin and confusion about what she's doing. Rapunzel nods when she pulls back her hand and the seaweed sticks, and she drops herself from the raft again to disappear back into the water.
Cass is somewhat alarmed - surely this can't be sanitary - but also whatever it was that Rapunzel had done before seems to be working very effectively… so they retie the bandage over the seaweed.
Later, Cass uses the spyglass to look all around for a sign of anything on the water or horizon. Not seeing anything, they lower the spyglass and find Rapunzel with her arms crossed on the raft's edge, tilting her head questioningly. Cass suppresses the brief flutter in their chest at Rapunzel's cute appearance, and they kneel down to offer the spyglass to Rapunzel. While she holds it, Cass mimes putting it up to her eye, and she does so - and gasps in delight, immediately looking all around. She then turns it around to look in the other end, and laughs at the change.
While Rapunzel plays with the spyglass, Cass sits down to start carving something new in a wood plank. In a short while they have a visual and they're able to try to explain the word "land" to Rapunzel, and she seems to understand. So, gesturing all around, Cass asks, "where's land?"
Rapunzel points in a direction, and Cass figures that's good enough of a lead, so they shift the shoddy sail on their raft to catch the wind, and set their rudder for that direction. They spend most of the rest of the day using an oar to row to help the raft along, while Rapunzel disappears and reappears periodically, often bringing crabs and little trinkets from the shipwreck - nails, a comb, utensils, hooks, to name a few - and Cass finds themself constantly wondering when it is that Rapunzel is going to leave for good.
Doesn't she have her own life? Cass wonders. Why is she still here?
[Rapunzel]
Rapunzel adores her human.
They're so smart, they made a thingy ("sail") to use wind to move their raft. It's super slow but still, how innovative.
They're so cute too. Rapunzel likes looking at them.
So Rapunzel collects shiny things to bring to them.
She finds a longer version of Cass's "dagger," and Cass looks astonished for a moment before telling her it's called "sword."
Rapunzel also starts passing time by using her claws to carve little drawings and designs in the wood of the raft, for fun. (She's a better artist than Cass.)
She does a carving of herself and Cass next to each other, and Cass explains they're called "human" and Rapunzel's called "mermaid."
Sometimes Cass says things not in that purposeful and charades-like way they use to explain words, so Rapunzel doesn't really understand everything they're saying, but she likes to listen to their voice anyway. So she just reclines against the raft with her head resting on her crossed arms using her tail in the water to help push the raft in the direction Cass rows, listening to them talk.
At one point, Rapunzel sees a sea turtle - one of her favorite animals - swimming under the raft, so she goes and picks him up to carry to the surface and ask Cass what word he is.
While Rapunzel holds up the confused turtle with a big smile, Cass looks startled for a moment before saying, "turtle."
Rapunzel repeats "turtle" while looking excitedly at him, and she gives him a kiss on the nose.
Cass laughs at this reaction, and Rapunzel is transfixed by the sound as she releases her turtle friend. She'd never heard Cass laugh before.
Rapunzel leaves again later as it becomes evening, and she returns with a squid for herself to eat while Cass has their crabs for dinner. They look at the stars together again that night, and Cass talks for a while about the constellations. Rapunzel doesn't know what they're saying, but she's happy to hear Cass speak.
Cass picks up the spyglass next to them and offers it to Rapunzel, pointing at the moon hanging in the sky. She lifts the spyglass to her eye to look, and gasps in delight at the details she could suddenly see on the moon's surface. Cass gives a small laugh next to her at her reaction, and they spend hours together perusing the sky, pointing out to each other interesting things they see through the spyglass.
~
The next morning Cass looks at their injury again, and Rapunzel's delighted to see it's almost fully healed. Cass then tries to wash it with seawater, which is silly because it already has Rapunzel's regeneration-stimulating saliva on it, so Rapunzel very patiently waits for her human to stop being silly and then licks her palm to wipe on the injury and cover with seaweed again.
Cass does not look happy about this, but they retie the bandage regardless. Rapunzel gives them a big smile before disappearing into the water again to find breakfast.
[Cass]
Rapunzel's occasional trips back and forth from the shipwreck, bearing gifts in the form of little trinkets, seem to start taking longer. Cass is both glad and stressed by this, as it means that they're making progress away from the wreck and towards land, but it also means that anything they might need from the ship's remains would be less and less available.
The next time Rapunzel returns, one of the items she brings is a small mirror. Lounging against the raft, she stares at her reflection, poking her teeth. She gestures for Cass to come closer, and when they kneel down at the edge of the raft, she grabs their face to open their mouth and poke their teeth.
Cass is startled by this, but stays motionless, letting the curious mermaid look in their mouth. After determining that yes, Cass's teeth are blunt, Rapunzel reaches for their hand to put her own hand against it, comparing the sizes and shapes. She next grabs Cass's leg, and Cass sits down at the raft edge and patiently lets Rapunzel investigate it - how it bends at the knee, their ankle, and their toes.
Cass is no stranger to their body being subject to others' fascination. They're very familiar with the stares of passersby out in public, who watch them intently while trying to determine if they're a masculine woman or feminine man, since options like 'neither' or 'both' simply don't exist in most peoples' minds. Even in intimate settings, Cass is well aware that part of their allure - at least initially, but often it persists - to potential lovers stems from the curiosity their appearance prompts. The worst situations are when Cass is seeking some kind of medical attention for sickness or injury, and the doctors they speak to spend an absurd amount of time asking questions about and investigating parts of Cass's body that have nothing to do with what they're seeking help for. While the other experiences they can tolerate, the last one is wildly dehumanizing, and it angers them every time - to the point that they've stopped seeing doctors entirely, regardless of their health.
But Rapunzel has no interest in the parts of their body that other humans focus so intently on. She shows delight only in the mundane - the parts of Cass that any human would have, and it makes Cass feel extremely… human. Realizing this bizarre twist on their usual experiences, Cass laughs out loud.
Rapunzel looks up from where she's holding Cass's foot, and she beams at their laugh.
Later, while Cass is rowing and Rapunzel is keeping them company, Rapunzel gives an excited gasp before disappearing underwater. Cass has no idea what prompted the reaction - but then they see a pod of dolphins dart under the raft, Rapunzel swimming with them.
Since the water is so clear, Cass is easily able to see Rapunzel and the dolphins twist and turn while chasing after each other playfully, and some of them leap out of the water to spiral in the air before coming back down. Cass is amazed by the speed of their swimming, the heights of the jumps, the twists and tricks they pull off. Cass notices that Rapunzel's tail is even more flexible than the dolphins', so she's able to stop and turn more tightly than them while swimming, which she uses during their chases.
Rapunzel and one of the dolphins swim up to the raft and peak their heads out to look up at Cass, and Rapunzel points at the dolphin questioningly. Cass tells her "dolphin," and Rapunzel cheers, "dolphin!" while throwing her arms in the air. The dolphin makes a happy trill in response looking at her, and Cass laughs at their excitement.
After playing for a short while longer the dolphins move on, and Rapunzel returns to lounge against the raft. Cass is charmed by how cute the whole affair was, and Rapunzel starts napping with her head resting on her crossed arms because she tired herself out.
Later, when Rapunzel is awake again, Cass uses the mirror to reflect sunlight into Rapunzel's face as a joke, and Rapunzel splashes them with water in response - prompting a playful splash fight which Rapunzel, obviously, wins.
Rapunzel leaves the raft later in the day while Cass continues their rowing, and she returns in the evening with a squid for her dinner and a net of woven seaweed. She ties two edges of the woven seaweed to the side of the raft, letting it drift folded in the water, and Cass wonders if it's for catching fish - although it seems like Rapunzel's able to catch fish just by chasing and biting them.
That night after looking at the stars together, Rapunzel reenters the water and Cass sees her slip into the woven seaweed like it's a hammock. Cass realizes that it's a bed she made for herself to sleep next to the raft, and they're startled again at how devoted Rapunzel seems to staying with them. They wonder what her story is, and hope that they might someday have taught her enough English for them to be able to converse easily.
~
The next morning, Cass's injury is almost entirely gone. They're shocked, and Rapunzel is delighted - and she doesn't put any more saliva or seaweed on it.
Cass decides if they're mostly healed, they can try to go for a swim.
Cass hesitates before taking off their trousers. The distress they once had with parts of their body hardly extended below their waist - but that doesn't mean that they haven't been made to feel weird about that part of themself before, due to startled reactions they'd gotten from past lovers who were told what to expect but were surprised anyway. Removing the clothes, Cass tries to remind themself that if Rapunzel is startled or stares, it's just because she's never seen a human naked before.
Cass scoots to the edge of the raft, and Rapunzel peeks her head out of the water curiously. She sees that Cass doesn't have trousers on, and immediately gasps and reaches for their leg again to investigate it without clothes. Cass offers the leg, and Rapunzel touches it and bends it like she'd done the day before, this time also patting the hair on their calf. To Cass's surprise - and relief - she doesn't pay even a moment of attention to their privates.
Once Rapunzel has relinquished the leg, Cass slips into the water.
Rapunzel is extremely excited about this. Cass laughs at her over-the-moon delighted reaction, while she swims all around them before giving them a big hug and rubbing her face against their neck. She lets go of them to dart through the water away from them, stopping to look back, and Cass realizes that she wants to play the chasing game she'd played with the dolphins. Cass takes a breath and starts swimming towards her, knowing that their maximum swim speed would make it apparent very quickly to Rapunzel that they won't be able to participate in any chases.
Rapunzel gets the message, and she comes back. She still seems too excited to stay in one place, though, so she keeps darting away and back to them. Cass swims around the raft, glad to finally get some kind of exercise for their legs after days of only being able to sit or lay or stand. After a short while, Rapunzel comes up from beneath them while they swim and puts their arms around her neck. She then starts swimming slowly, pulling Cass along the surface like a piggyback ride.
Cass holds tightly to Rapunzel, and she starts swimming faster, using her arms in a butterfly stroke along the surface - so fast that Cass even feels scared at first, and they wrap their legs around Rapunzel's waist to hold tighter. Feeling more secure, they start to enjoy the speed and laugh with the exhilaration, and Rapunzel glances back for barely a moment to smile at them, as they tear across the surface together.
When she returns them to the raft, Cass climbs out of the water and lays down to dry in the sun. To Cass's surprise, after a few moments Rapunzel follows, leaping onto the raft to lay next to them and letting her tail fin trail in the water.
Startled, Cass sits up - and they look at Rapunzel, mesmerized, since they'd never seen Rapunzel out of water in the daylight before. Rapunzel peeks open an eye to see Cass staring, and she smiles and grabs one of Cass's hands to put on her tail.
Cass is embarrassed - just earlier they'd been glad that Rapunzel didn't stare at them, and here they were, staring at her instead - but they quickly realize Rapunzel is telling them it's okay to be curious about her tail in the same way she was curious about their legs.
So they feel the smooth skin on Rapunzel's tail, admiring how strong her muscles must be since she can move so absurdly fast through the water.
Cass lays back down next to Rapunzel, and the two of them look at each other for a few moments before Rapunzel sticks her tongue out and flicks the end of her tail to hit Cass with waterdrops, and she laughs and slides back into the water.
Later, looking at the sword that Rapunzel had brought them, Cass decides they want to show off for her. They had trained every day with their sword back home and can do neat tricks, like cutting an apple into eight perfect slices in midair. Without any apples to work with, Cass waits until Rapunzel tells them that she'll be back later - and then attempts the trick with a fish, slicing it with a series of vertical parallel cuts and trying to catch the pieces on the flat of the blade. They don't manage on their first try, and they feel grateful that they'd waited for Rapunzel to be gone to practice instead of embarrassing themself in front of her. But after another couple tries they get it down - and then they wait, excited, for her return.
[Rapunzel]
While out hunting, Rapunzel finds another considerably older shipwreck on the seafloor. Curious, she pokes through it - and finds some shiny trinkets that she wants to show Cass, so she fills her bag and returns to the raft.
Cass looks astonished when she immediately upends the bag onto the raft and all the shiny things fall out. They pick up the items and say things like "gold necklace" and "ruby ring" and "sapphire bracelet." They gesture to all of it in general and say, "jewelry."
And they show Rapunzel how to wear the items. Rapunzel gestures for them to come closer and then starts putting all of the jewelry on Cass, because it all looks so pretty on them, and Cass laughs.
Leaving some of the jewelry on, Cass stands and tells her, "look" - and they lift up a fish from the basket while holding their sword. Rapunzel tilts her head, confused about what they're doing - and then they toss the fish into the air and slice it over their head, catching the evenly-sized falling pieces in a line on their sword in front of them.
Rapunzel gasps at the sheer precision and balance it must take to pull off such a trick, her eyes wide. Amazed, she immediately claps her hands together, and Cass beams at her. They tilt their blade to slide the slices of fish back into the basket, and Rapunzel grabs one to eat.
During the peak of the day, it's hot enough that Cass spends most of their time in the shade of their little shelter, and they take a piece of wood to start carving with their dagger. Rapunzel is interested to see their carving - she wonders if there's some new word Cass wants to teach her.
After a while, when Cass is back out of their shelter and Rapunzel comes over to put her arms up on the raft, they lean over offer Rapunzel a small sea turtle they'd whittled from the wood (which they are, apparently, considerably better at than drawing).
Rapunzel is overwhelmed by the gift. She lunges directly up from the water to wrap her arms around Cass in a hug, and they try to hug her back to hold her up, but they lose their balance. So Rapunzel and Cass both fall into the sea, and surface laughing.
Rapunzel reaches her hand up to gently push the wet curls from Cass's face, and they smile before handing the turtle to her.
Rapunzel loves her little turtle. After staring at it for a while, she puts it in her bag, with her favorite rock.
[Cass]
In the evening, when Cass is back to rowing on the raft with Rapunzel lounging on the side, helping to push it along, Rapunzel starts singing.
It's not any words that Cass understands, but her voice is beautiful.
That night, instead of coming onto the raft to stargaze with them, Rapunzel says "look" and she goes under the water - and Cass sees light blue lights start glowing under the surface.
Shocked, Cass goes to the edge of the raft to look as Rapunzel swims around under the raft, speckles of light down her back and tail and trailing down her arms. She sticks her head up out of the water and parts of her shoulder and neck are glowing, as well as spots across the bridge of her nose and cheekbones, looking like stars.
Cass can hardly believe what they're seeing. She's bioluminescent.
Rapunzel giggles at the look on Cass's face, and they grab the spyglass to point at her as if they were looking at the stars overhead, making Rapunzel laugh again. They hope she understands the comparison they're making: that she's as beautiful as the night sky.
~
The next morning, on their fifth day shipwrecked, Cass starts to get very nervous about their water supply. They've been severely rationing it already, and there's still no land in sight.
They had asked Rapunzel about looking for more bottles before, but Rapunzel returned empty-handed from her long trek and told them "no bottles" while looking very sad.
So instead Cass asks about land again, and Rapunzel points in the same direction she's pointed before - but when Cass tries to ask her how far, Rapunzel doesn't understand their question. They spend a while trying to explain what they're asking, but they don't know how with the limited words they've been able to teach Rapunzel - so eventually they give up.
Rapunzel seems stressed by the communication barrier, so Cass tries to explain to her that they need fresh water, which they think she might understand. Hearing "water," Rapunzel cups seawater in her webbed hands to offer to Cass, and Cass repeats "fresh water" to her, pointing at water in a bottle. Rapunzel reaches for one of the empty bottles on the raft and puts it under the surface, filling it with seawater, and holds it to Cass - and Cass has to tell her "no," feeling growing frustration, but also heartbroken by Rapunzel's sad expression at their response.
[Rapunzel]
Rapunzel is extremely distressed by Cass's nervousness, and she wishes desperately that she could understand what's happening. Knowing it has something to do with the bottles, Rapunzel feels like she has to search for them again, even though at this point the original wreck is a great distance away. So after filling Cass's basket with as many crabs as they'd need for over a day, Rapunzel tells Cass "I bring bottles, I come back night" and leaves before Cass can say anything.
She makes the long journey back to the initial shipwreck again, swimming as quickly as she can so she isn't gone long, even though she already knows she won't find anything.
And she doesn't. She picks up some other glass containers she finds, but they don't have water in them, and Cass wants the water in the bottles.
When she returns to the raft as the sun sets, she's exhausted and collapses against the edge of it. She pulls out the glass containers from her bag to show Cass, and Cass gently takes them from her. She asks, "fresh water?"
But Cass shakes their head.
Rapunzel looks down, distraught, still clutching to the raft's edge so she doesn't have to tread water. She hears Cass say something to her, but she doesn't understand them and she feels another flare of upset.
Cass touches her hand and she looks up to see their gentle expression, and she knows that they're saying something kind to her. Their eyebrows draw together, and without even bothering to remove their trousers, they slip into the water next to her and put their arms around her.
Rapunzel lets go of the raft with one arm to hug them back, and she buries her face in their neck. She feels overwhelmed with relief that Cass isn't upset with her, but she knows that without the bottles there's still something very wrong.
Rapunzel is too exhausted to watch the stars that night, so she slips into the hammock she'd made. Cass lays down on the raft next to her bed, and they put their hand in the water to hold hers.
~
Rapunzel hopes that things will be better the next day, but even while Cass acts kind with her, she can tell that they're stressed. Rapunzel notices that they don't laugh anymore - not even when Rapunzel tries to cheer them up by doing silly little things to entertain them, like holding up a young manta ray and getting slapped in the face with its flippers.
Cass also doesn't swim with Rapunzel again, and mainly alternates between rowing and staying in the shade of their little shelter. Rapunzel helps them move the raft, putting her arms on it and pushing with her tail, even when Cass isn't rowing. She stops exploring the seafloor and playing with animals, too, and she only leaves the raft to hunt for food. Cass wants to get to land - and she's going to get them there.
~
The next day, Cass rarely comes out from their little shelter, and they hardly react to anything - not even Rapunzel presenting them with carved drawings of them as a mermaid with her, and her as a human with them. Rapunzel sees that there's no more water in the bottles on the raft.
Rapunzel takes rope to pull the raft in the direction of land, tying it around her waist so she can use both her tail and hands to swim. She knows that's where Cass wanted to go, so she spends the bulk of the day doing this.
Cass stops eating, which makes Rapunzel scared. They don't get up at all anymore. So she swims even faster, tugging on the raft.
More time passes. Cass starts vomiting, and then passes out. Terrified, Rapunzel grabs the raft's ropes to pull it as hard as she can. She knows she can't do anything for Cass, but maybe other humans could, so she knows she has to get to land.
Finally, Rapunzel sees a coast in the distance. Her whole body hurts and her muscles tremble from the effort she'd been exerting for so long - but knowing that Cass's life depends on reaching the land, she continues swimming as hard as she can manage.
Reaching the coastline, Rapunzel sees no human homes - but she's too exhausted to continue pulling the raft.
So with the raft dragged as close to the shore as possible and half-dead from exhaustion, Rapunzel decides to do something she'd never done out of water: she shrieks, making the same powerful vocalization that merfolk use underwater to find each other across vast distances. Out of water, the sound is extremely loud.
She hopes that some human is somewhere near who will hear and investigate, and she lets out more shrieks - but she quickly loses consciousness from exhaustion.
~
When Rapunzel wakes, it's in a net, and men are dragging her along the ground away from the water.
Rapunzel can just barely see Cass, still unconscious and ignored on the raft.
She freaks out, thrashing and tearing at the net with her claws. She knocks some of the men over and rips the net, but something strikes her head from behind, and she's knocked out.
~
Rapunzel is dazed when she wakes up again. Her arms are tied tightly to her sides and her tail is tied tightly to a long and thick plank of wood under her. She's being brought somewhere over land in a wagon - all she can see is the sky overhead, and the undersides of tree canopies, and feel the bumping from the road. She tries to struggle to get free, but can't manage it, and with her head throbbing and body exhausted she loses consciousness again.
~
The next time she wakes, she's in water - kind of. Her bottom half is in a wooden basin that isn't nearly large enough to accommodate her, and her arms are still tied to her sides. Humans are in the room, too - a dozen? - many looking at her and making sounds among each other. The only word Rapunzel recognizes is "mermaid."
An older man comes close to Rapunzel's basin, and she lashes out with her tail towards him. People cry out in alarm, and Rapunzel begins thrashing again, trying to get her arms free - but another man rushes over quickly and sticks something into Rapunzel's arm, and the room spins as she passes out.
~
Rapunzel is in water, again, when she wakes. Still not enough, though. The room she's in now is a large cellar of sorts, with walls and a floor of stone and with a couple small windows near the ceiling along one wall, letting light in. A wooden staircase leads to a door near the ceiling in one corner. There's a table with a couple chairs against a wall, and barrels stacked against another wall, and no other furnishings.
The water she's in is a small pool made from a short stone wall built out in a semicircle from one of the cellar's walls, and the water is no deeper than three feet. She can swim only in a tight circle. A chain is around her neck, and the end is cemented into the wall behind her, the chain no longer than the radius of her pool.
Rapunzel has no idea how long she was unconscious. She doesn't know where she is, or how she got there. She's terrified.